Staff report

CONCORD — Girls have bad hair days and bad memory days, so bad basketball days are certainly possible.

East Rowan senior Mary Church had a bad basketball day on Thursday. She doesn’t have many of those. She averages 18 points and is headed for 1,000 for her career. But she scored just three on Thursday in a 54-50 loss at Northwest Cabarrus.

Church didn’t have to wait long to end her slump. The Mustangs (15-4, 7-4) had another big South Piedmont Conference road game at Central Cabarrus on Friday, and East took care of that one, 63-48.

It’s not like Church won it by herself — Lily Kluttz and Kady Collins had exceptional games and several Mustangs had their moments — but Church did score 23. She made three 3-pointers in the second quarter. That’s when the Mustangs seized control of the game.

East did not start well and Church did not start well. Nearly seven minutes into the game, Church had missed her first three shots and had two points in the scorebook on free throws. East trailed 10-5, and coach Bri Evans was trying hard to stay calm, as the Vikings (7-11, 6-5), who beat East in Granite Quarry early in the season, out-physicaled her team on the backboards.

Kluttz made a huge shot with about a minute left in the quarter, a 3-pointer that got East back to 10-8. Sadie Featherstone made two free throws for 10-all.

Featherstone pressured a Central player into a bad pass. Church picked it off, laid it in for her first goal and made it 12-all. But the Vikings led 15-12 at the end of the quarter, and East’s top three scorers — Church, Collins and Featherstone — had combined for only one field goal.

Church made a 3-pointer for 15-all to start the second quarter. Evans breathed a sigh of relief that the slump might be over.

It was.

Equally big for East, Kluttz made the perfect pass that got Collins an easy layup. That got Collins going, and she can be tough to stop.

East led 22-19 with 2:40 left in the first half. That’s when the game swung East’s way for good. Church made a 3 from the right corner. Savannah Wise got a steal for a layup. Then Church buried another 3 from the same spot. Eight quick points. East suddenly led 30-19. That was a hard punch in the mouth, and Central, which was struggling to solve East’s 2-3 zone, never recovered from it.

With time about to expire in the half, Wise had the ball at the top of the circle, but didn’t have a shot. She smartly fired the ball off the backboard. It turned out to be a great pass. Collins rebounded in the lane and stuck it in, and the Mustangs led 32-20 at the break.

Church scored seven in the third quarter as East maintained a comfortable lead.

Kluttz finished off the Vikings with pinpoint passes in the fourth quarter, mostly to Collins. Kluttz got four of her five assists in the last eight minutes. She would have had more than five assists, but some layups were missed and some passes were fumbled.

Collins scored a high-percentage 16, all on 2s, mostly from close range. Isis Smith had seven rebounds and had back-to-back assists in the fourth quarter on nice passes to Kluttz and Wise. Wise and Featherstone had four steals each.

Featherstone took one charge officially. She probably should have gotten the call on at least one more. Kori Miller banged on the boards and contributed three free throws.

Felicity Arevalo scored 18 for the Vikings, while Daniyah Burton had 16.

East Rowan               12    20   15   16   — 63

Central Cabarrus      15    5      12   16   — 48

East — Church 23, Collins 16, Kluttz 6, Wise 6,  Smith 5, Featherstone 4, Miller 3.

Central  — Arévalo 18, Burton 16, Nix 8, Blanchard 2, Duckett 2, Pickett 1.